London fintech start-up GoCardless raises $7m in funding round led by Balderton

London-based fintech start-up GoCardless has raised $7 million (£4.22 million) for its online payment platform through a Series B funding round led by Balderton Capital - one of the big four venture capital (VC) firms in London.

GoCardless, which has already been backed by a number of other VCs, including Accel Partners and Passion Capital, aims to make it easier for businesses to accept recurring payments via direct debit online.

GoCardless said it will use the latest funding to build out its proposition for enterprise customers and expand its engineering team.

Hiroki Takeuchi, CEO of GoCardless, said: “This new funding allows us to recruit the best talent to help us scale our technology to serve the demands of ever larger businesses.”

The company, which has focused on serving subscription services and B2B businesses, claims to be processing over $200 million (£120 million) of transactions per year, having grown by 700 percent in 2013.

Takeuchi added: “We believe that payments should be one less barrier to business. Direct debit is perfect for accepting recurring payments, but it’s been out of reach for most companies up until now. We enable thousands of businesses to access the system for the first time, improving their cash-flow and letting them focus on delivering value to their customers.”

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GoCardless has a varied customer base, from small charities to national enterprises. Customers such as Greater Anglia Trains use GoCardless to help it manage growing online ticket sales, whilst minimising legacy software costs and administrative overhead.

Tim Bunting, general partner at Balderton Capital, said, “GoCardless is an exceptional team with the potential to radically improve the way payments are done for businesses. For us, the most distinguishing feature was the feedback from their existing customers, who stressed that the technology they have developed, and the technical team they have built, is world class.

"We believe this technological advantage, the scalability of the GoCardless model and size of the market it operates in will allow GoCardless to play an important role in the future of online payments.”

Bunting will join existing investor Sven Schmidt from Accel on the GoCardless Board. Robert Dighero from Passion Capital also remains on the Board as an observer.